This Week on DnA: Silicon Valley Gets an Edifice Complex

Silicon Valley’s tech whizzes have transformed technology and society. And they have done so in a region noted for its suburban ordinariness.
That’s about to change– with the landing of Apple’s Norman Foster-designed “spaceship” in Cupertino and Frank Gehry’s vast new headquarters for Facebook in Menlo Park.
But will these buildings change the fundamental character of Silicon Valley?

The bright minds of Silicon Valley have transformed technology and society. And they have done so in a region noted for its suburban ordinariness, with its great inventions starting life in tinkerers’ garages.

That’s all about to change– with the landing of Apple’s Norman Foster-designed “spaceship” in Cupertino (above) and Frank Gehry’s vast building for Facebook in Menlo Park (below).

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Paul Goldberger, Paul Finch and Elina Shatkin explore the changes taking place and ask, are tech titans the new patrons of architecture? What kind of workspaces have they created? And are they the makers of a new kind of company town? You will also hear comments from architects Frank Gehry and Norman Foster, as well as the people of Cupertino, including Shatkin’s mother, Tanya Melnik, a mechanical engineer and veteran of the tech industry.

For more on the interview with Paul Goldberger, about “The Shape of Things to Come” in Silicon Valley, click here.

For more on the Apple Campus, the interview with Paul Finch about architect Norman Foster and Elina Shatkin’s report on the feelings of locals in Cupertino, click here.